Bibliography: pages 75-82. / This dissertation is concerned with teachers' beliefs regarding boys, girls and mathematics. The present study is a partial replication of a study conducted by Fennema et al (1990) and the results are compared. The present study extended the work of Fennema et al (1990) through an exploration of the structure of the data. Forty female teachers in the Western Cape region were interviewed. They were asked to identify their two most and least successful boys and girls in mathematics and to attribute causation for success and failure. They _were also asked to respond to 20 characteristics on a "Likert type" response format. The results generated from the present study concluded that teachers believed their female students to be their more successful mathematics students. They attributed the most successful girls' achievement mainly to effort whereas with the most successful boys, achievement was attributed to ability and effort. Both the most successful boys and girls failures on mathematics tasks were attributed to the difficulty of the task. Achievement of the least successful girls was attributed mainly to teacher's help and for the boys it was attributed to teacher's help and task. For both these groups, ability and to a lesser extent, effort, are given as the main reasons for failure on mathematics tasks. Very little difference was found between teachers' responses regarding the characteristics of their best boy and best girl mathematics students. When exploratory factor-analysis was performed a difference was found in the factor-solutions for the boys and the girls. This study suggests that there might be a difference in teachers' beliefs regarding boys and girls achievement in mathematics that is worthy of further exploration.

This study examines the use of the Test of Written English (TWE), the essay portion of the TOEFL, as an indicator of academic readiness at Portland State University.

This study was designed to test five hypotheses in order to answer the following general research questions: 1) Are measures of syntactic complexity valid indices of ESL writing quality as measured by the holistic rating of student essays? 2) Would a measure of frequency and seriousness of error reflect evaluators' perceptions of ESL writing quality?

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of behavioral checklist critical item content on subsequent global, Likert-type ratings. It was hypothesized that assessment center participants rated with positive critical items would receive higher scores on subsequent global ratings than would participants rated with negative critical items. Additionally, it was hypothesized that volunteers would receive better ratings than nonvolunteers. Finally, it was hypothesized that behavioral ratings would show less susceptibility to halo effect than global ratings.

Thesis (M. Ed.) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / The importance of programme evaluation is acknowledged by many authors. However, less emphasis is given to understanding programme implementation (Duttweiller & Dayton, 2009; HSRC: South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2012; Romm and Dichaba, 2015). Simply assessing a programme impact without a clear understanding of the degree to which the programme was actually implemented can result in inaccurate findings. The effective evaluation of both programme impacts and implementation can provide a more holistic perspective of programmes and an increased ability to identify and share best practices or weaknesses of programmes (Duerden and Witt, 2012). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the Reading and Writing Instruction Programme (RWIP) in two primary schools situated in Lobethal Circuit. A qualitative approach was adopted using a case study design. Data collection was done through observations, interviews and documents analysis. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data while conclusions were drawn based on the themes that emerged during data collection and analysis. The results of the study indicate that there is implementation of the RWI programme. However, schools differ on how they apply the strategies that are outlined in the programme. The study recommends that there should be strong collaborations between Room to Read, schools, communities, circuit, district and provincial offices so that everyone understands the key components/elements of the Reading and Writing Instruction (RWI) Programme and how to apply them.

During the second semester of the 1989-90 school year, all of Virginia's 65,000+ sixth-grade students were the first to take literacy tests in mathematics, reading and writing as part of a new Virginia Assessment Program mandated by the legislature. Passing scores on all three of these literacy tests is now mandatory for admission to ninth grade. The writing portion of the assessment requires that students construct a writing sample in response to a writing prompt. For the three years prior to 1989-90, school systems within the state could participate voluntarily in a fourth-grade baseline test to determine student potential for failing the sixth-grade assessment. Students whose papers fall into the bottom quartile of all papers scored each year are considered at-risk for failing the Literacy Passport Test at the sixth-grade level. This study examines the writing behaviors and the characteristics of the papers written by four fifth-grade students identified by the Virginia Department of Education as at-risk for failing the Literacy Passport Test. The author chose to function both as researcher and as participant/observer in the study, functioning in both of these roles for a twenty-one week period during the fall and early winter of 1989-90. Data was collected during a three hour per day, three day a week time period. Collection sources included field notes, interviews with students and teachers, and student papers, including the fourth-grade baseline assessment, papers written during the twenty-one weeks of data collection and a simulated Literacy Passport Test writing sample. Findings include a description of each student's approach to writing and an analysis, both analytical and domain-based, of the writing of selected papers of each of the four students. Implications for teaching, as well as suggestions for further research, are included in this document. / Ed. D.

The investigator had the following purposes in undertaking the present study: 1. To determine the accuracy of the Brace Basketball Achievement Test in measuring a girl's real playing ability. 2. To determine to what extent the Brace Basketball Achievement Test can be relied upon to rank the players of a girls Interscholastic League basketball squad. 3. To determine to what extent the Brace Basketball Achievement Test can be relied upon to rank girls basketball squads in an Interscholastic League district. 4. To determine the degree to which the Brace Basketball Test can be relied upon as an aid for the selection of players for a high school girls basketball squad.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study is concerned with a task-based analysis of specific purposes Sesotho learning tasks for the learning and teaching of Sesotho as a second language by personnel of the small business development corporation. A range of authentic tasks in Sesotho has been constructed to demonstrate authentic specific purpose learning and teaching, and hence assessment tasks for personnel in the small business development corporation.

Responding to Student Writing: Strategies for a Distance-Teaching Context identifies viable response techniques for a unique discourse community. An overview of paradigmatic shifts in writing and reading theory, 'frameworks of response' developed to classify response statements for research purposes, and an overview of research in the field provide the theoretical basis for the evaluation of the empirical study. The research comprises a three-fold exploration of the response strategies adopted by Unisa lecturers to the writing of Practical English (PENl00-3) students. In the first phase the focus falls on the effect of intervention on the students' revised drafts of four divergent marking strategies - coded correction, minimal marking, taped response and self assessment. All the experimental strategies tested result in statistically-significant improvement levels in the revised draft. The benefits of self assessment and rewriting, even without tutorial intervention, were demonstrated. The study is unique by virtue of its distance-teaching context, its sample size of 1750 and in the high significance levels achieved. The second phase of the research consisted of a questionnaire that determined 2640 students' expectations with respect to marking, the value of commentary, their perceptions of markers' roles and their opinions of the experimental strategies tested. Their responses were also correlated with their final Practical English examination results. The third phase examined tutorial response. The framework of response, developed for the purpose, revealed that present response strategies represent a regression to the traditional product-orientated approach to writing that contradicts the cognitive and rhetorical axiological basis of the course. There is thus a disjunction between the teaching and theoretical practices. The final chapter bridges this gap by examining issues of audience, transparency, ownership, timing of intervention and training. The researcher believes that she has successfully identified practical and innovative strategies that assist lecturers in a distance-teaching context to break away from old response blueprints. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether certain Ron Davis techniques which have been applied by the Davis Dyslexia Correction Center in America the past two decades could in the short term have a significantly positive influence on the reading ability and psychological functioning of children with a reading disorder, especially regarded against the background of escalating concern about the reading ability of South African learners in general and learners with a reading disorder in particular.